Brides & Weddings Magazine
Captured & submitted by Christine Austin Photography
When putting everything together the hope was to create a beautiful, unique wedding setup, while also allowing the beauty of Amelia Island State Park to still speak for itself. I also wanted this shoot to be attainable and relatable to brides and grooms who may see these images – with that in mind, I had my close friends Naomi and Austin participate. I wanted our “married couple” to actually be married and there to be authenticity to the images captured. What made this even more amazing was that the horses (Baby and Duke) were owned by Naomi and Austin, so they genuinely were being themselves during our time together. The additional couple in attendance as guests, Josh and Flo, were also good friends of everyone, which also spoke to the genuineness of the interactions.Stylistically, our approach was to blend romantic elegance, spring colors, and current design trends of smaller, intimate weddings that occur here in Florida. In addition, Amelia Island State Park is one of the few beaches in Florida that allow horses on the beach, so this allowed us to incorporate a unique twist as well. Each detail played off of the spring colors of light blue with hints of blush and peach throughout. For a smaller, intimate wedding we selected a petite sized cake and added other fun dessert alternatives of banana pudding shots and macaroons at the dessert table. For the furniture decor we wanted to use wood tones that would mimic some of the weathered driftwood that can be found around the area – this allowed each of the decor pieces to pop against those more natural tones. To maintain elegance at the beach, we carefully selected fine china and glasses that stylistically matched our theme but also pushed the barriers of what you may normally see at a beach wedding.
For our outfit and hairstyle selections, we wanted to incorporate dresses that would actually we worn at the beach in Florida, since it can get rather hot throughout the entire year, but also to allow our bride to have the elegant, flowy dress as well. This is where we chose to have 2 dresses for our bride, and started with an up-do hairstyle that also could be let down into a messy braid ponytail. For our female guest in attendance, we matched her dress to the lighter blues throughout the decor, but also allowed the dress to be dressed up too. For our groom we wanted to show how casual attire of just a simple white button up and khaki pants can also be elevated by adding in suspenders when the bride changed dresses.
Lastly, we selected and stylized our invitation suite to match our spring blues and driftwood tones. The addition of some shells (that were actually found on the beaches in Northeast Florida) was a way to bring some of the beach to the detail shots while also keeping things clean and fresh.
Overall my hope is that anyone viewing these images will feel inspired to put their special touch on an intimate beach wedding, and can appreciate the beauty that Amelia Island Florida has to offer.
